What is Islam? Ask a Muslim

[Enemy of the State]

Because they are ignorant fools who think they can blame their fates entirely on the west. They are a product of poverty and illiteracy. And two machineguns? If it wasn't for the Al Jazeera logo I would think that was from a John Woo movie.

The men who slammed into the twin towers were all well educated. Several of them had Ph.Ds . The people carrying out terrorist attacks are generally not poor and stupid, they are usually the opposite.

[Nesimî]

That may have been the case with 9/11, but I really doubt you are going to find any philosophy majors in Boko Haram. We don't want to kill anyone, we don't want to die, and I don't understand why that is so difficult to explain.

[Shamshir]

Deleted by author

[The Kybrothilian]

The men who slammed into the twin towers were all well educated. Several of them had Ph.Ds . The people carrying out terrorist attacks are generally not poor and stupid, they are usually the opposite.

Frustrated and depressed Islamic youth usually finds itself in radical movements and partaking in terrorist attacks.

[Nesimî]

Here they find themselves in awful thrash metal cover bands.

[Sar1n]

Why'd you avoid the question of Muhammad's warmongering? I've checked some sources and the only longer period of peace during his life after he gained enough followers to actually wage war were two years of Hudaybiyyah treaty, rest of the time was spent by either active campaigns or preparing for next one.

[Scruff Dog]

The best you can say about Mohammed is that he was an ordinary leader of his era in history. For a religious founder I think you ideally need someone a little more saintly and flawless a character perhaps. No doubt he saw himself as an Old Testament style prophet or someone like Joshua.

[Denny Crane!]

I believe it was not our Prophet who gave that judgement, but a man named Sa'd ibn Muadh. It seems it was prescribed from verses in Deutronomy (20: 12-14)

In his name under his rule? Kinda like saying that a dictator isn't responsible for the executions under his rule because he wasn't in the court and pulling the trigger. Except its even worse than that because he was in command of an army which is even closer to the circumstances than a dictator. You can't pass of that responsibility so easily.

Please do not bring up the War on Terror, it makes me disagreeable.

You can't objectively discuss a global event, are you kidding me? Well you mentioned modern examples, pick another more convenient and less..stressful to you.

I do not know what I would have done. Would I have found it easy to kill so many people as a collective punishment? Probably not. Would I have been able to kill people who stabbed me in the back as I was on the verge of extermination myself? Possibly.

Well I struggle to find entering into negotiations as stabbing someone in the back, but that is by the by.

In an army you have a person at the top making decisions but the ordinary rank and file were beheaded for following orders. Would Mohammed have wanted his own soldiers questioning his orders? If following orders is a crime then everyone in every army should be beheaded. Anyone who ever ended up on the wrong side should have this.

There goes all the men and women of the German armies during World War Two. Every single one should have died right?

We can excuse tough decisions and that is fine for ordinary human commanders but we are discussing a Prophet who laid out the supposed foundation for human objective morality and so you can't just brush things off as "well they were troubled times" because these are examples of acceptable behaviour if we are to understand that the Prophet and his words and actions are to be revered so completely and without question. At least this is how it is presented by the majority of muslims.

[Denny Crane!]

I believe it was not our Prophet who gave that judgement, but a man named Sa'd ibn Muadh. It seems it was prescribed from verses in Deutronomy (20: 12-14)

In his name under his rule? Kinda like saying that a dictator isn't responsible for the executions under his rule because he wasn't in the court and pulling the trigger. Except its even worse than that because he was in command of an army which is even closer to the circumstances than a dictator. You can't pass of that responsibility so easily.

Please do not bring up the War on Terror, it makes me disagreeable.

You can't objectively discuss a global event, are you kidding me? Well you mentioned modern examples, pick another more convenient and less..stressful to you.

I do not know what I would have done. Would I have found it easy to kill so many people as a collective punishment? Probably not. Would I have been able to kill people who stabbed me in the back as I was on the verge of extermination myself? Possibly.

Well I struggle to find entering into negotiations as stabbing someone in the back, but that is by the by.

In an army you have a person at the top making decisions but the ordinary rank and file were beheaded for following orders. Would Mohammed have wanted his own soldiers questioning his orders? If following orders is a crime then everyone in every army should be beheaded. Anyone who ever ended up on the wrong side should have this.

There goes all the men and women of the German armies during World War Two. Every single one should have died right?

We can excuse tough decisions and that is fine for ordinary human commanders but we are discussing a Prophet who laid out the supposed foundation for human objective morality and so you can't just brush things off as "well they were troubled times" because these are examples of acceptable behaviour if we are to understand that the Prophet and his words and actions are to be revered so completely and without question. At least this is how it is presented by the majority of muslims.

[Scruff Dog]

You can say Mohammed was a flawed human 7th century warlord who still somehow had some revelation from God. I don't think all Muslims claim Mohammed to be the perfect man he wasn't a Christ like character but the average man. Apparently so average the Quran would have been beyond his capacity to recite. I would defend Islam at least a certain form of it against atheism seeing as they believe in God.

[Enemy of the State]

You can say Mohammed was a flawed human 7th century warlord who still somehow had some revelation from God. I don't think all Muslims claim Mohammed to be the perfect man he wasn't a Christ like character but the average man. Apparently so average the Quran would have been beyond his capacity to recite.

Not possible I'm afraid.

Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah.

[Biggieboy]

You can say Mohammed was a flawed human 7th century warlord who still somehow had some revelation from God. I don't think all Muslims claim Mohammed to be the perfect man he wasn't a Christ like character but the average man. Apparently so average the Quran would have been beyond his capacity to recite. I would defend Islam at least a certain form of it against atheism seeing as they believe in God.

So believing in any god is better than not believing in any god? awesome.

[Scruff Dog]

So believing in any god is better than not believing in any god? awesome.

It's the same God Christians and Jews believe in. Muslims make a big deal about the Trinity but I'm not too fussed by it, there were early Christian sects that denied it anyway. Mormons are a different kettle of fish because they believe God used to be a man who lived on a different planet and he is only God of our planet he didn't create the universe. I would only allow for a certain amount of flexibility on this, not believing Jesus was the incarnation of God but a prophet is acceptable with me.

[Biggieboy]

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

[Scruff Dog]

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Muslims believe the NT is inaccurate or corrupted and they have the perfect word God. If they prefer to believe the Quran then that's fine with me I still recognise it as the same God, unlike the Mormon God which isn't. I have all these books on Sufi mystic poetry and stuff it's to my taste. I'll give Islam a slightly limp handshake.

[Heavy Weapons Guy]

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

And Jesus (pbuh) is prophet of G-d (SWT). Muslims follow all Jesus (pbuh) teachings.

[Scruff Dog]

Jesus wasn't teaching there but making the claim that only he is the real deal and no-one else. That's the problem Muslims will have with Jesus he didn't speak as prophet he spoke as God. You managed to somehow slot him in anyway. Jews just ignore him completely which would be the easier way of doing it. What Muslims do to counter this is to claim that Jesus spoke as though he was in agreement with God and this was misinterpreted.

[Biggieboy]

And Jesus (pbuh) is prophet of G-d (SWT). Muslims follow all Jesus (pbuh) teachings.

Then why aren't you Christian?

[removeduser_4536284751384]

The men who slammed into the twin towers were all well educated. Several of them had Ph.Ds . The people carrying out terrorist attacks are generally not poor and stupid, they are usually the opposite.

None of that means you're not ignorant.

[sumskilz]

None of that means you're not ignorant.

What would they be ignorant of? In a general sense, well-educated seems to be the opposite of ignorant. I think they just had a value system that is foreign to most of us.